Children's Author Pens 'Goodnight Moon' Parody

By Rocco Staino

October 6, 2011

David Milgrim has some advice for our fast-paced, high-tech world: slow down and enjoy the simpler things in life. That's why the children's book author and illustrator created Goodnight iPad (Penguin, 2011), a soon-to-be released parody of Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon (HarperCollins, 1947).

Using the pen name Ann Droyd (get it?), Milgrim replaces the familiar clock, brush, and bowl full of mush with the electronic gadgets of "our over stimulated culture" to tell the story of a "fed-up old woman, who is trying to sleep" amid "the bings, bongs, and beep of e-mails and tweets."

It isn't quite the soothing bedtime story that has sold more than 5 million copies since its release and helped scores of children fall asleep. But the message of this book for all ages is clear-technology has taken over our lives.

"The simple, peaceful, quiet world of Goodnight Moon seems to be receding into the distance," Milgrim says, explaining why he selected the classic as the backdrop for his modern-day story. "I didn't know quite what to do about it, except write some books about it to spread the word. Just like money can't buy you love, technology can't tweet you peace."

The idea for Goodnight iPad came from Milgrim's agent, Brenda Bowen, a recognized name in children's publishing for the past 25 years who thought that Milgrim's experience reworking children's classics for the 21st century made him the perfect candidate for the job. Milgrim's "Otto" (Atheneum, 2002) ready-to-read series, about a robot and his adventures on earth, is based on the "Dick and Jane" series.

Why did Milgrim use a pseudonym this time? Because, he says, this book was different from his other works, and frankly, he wasn't sure how it would fly. "If it crashed and burned, I wanted to be able to crawl away from the wreckage without hurting the rest of my work," he says. His most recent book, Eddie Gets Ready For School (Scholastic, 2011), is about a feisty young boy who learns how to get ready for school without any help.

Goodnight Moon has often been the subject of parodies. Michael Rex's Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody (Putnam, 2008) replaces the original bunny with a monster, and Goodnight Bush: a Parody (Little Brown, 2008) by Erich Origen and Gan Golan is an adult political parody.

Goodnight iPad is published by Blue Rider Press, an adult imprint of Penguin Group (USA) and will be released on October 27.

School Library Journal article

Goodnight iPad is a sweet tribute to Steve Jobs

Posted in Hipsqueak blog by Judy Sutton Taylor on Oct 6, 2011 at 9:32am

I love that this morning–just a few hours after learning of Apple founder Steve Jobs' death–is the one when I discovered a copy of Goodnight iPad (Blue Rider Press), a new tongue-in-cheek riff of Margaret Wise Brown's iconic bedtime story Goodnight Moon, among my mail. The book by "Ann Droyd" (really children's book author and illustrator David Milgrim) is labeled "a parody for the next generation," but today it reads more like another tribute to Jobs and the way he's changed the world.

Instead of a great green room with a red balloon, the modern version starts in a bright buzzing room with an iPad and a kid playing Doom. The book is filled with funny rhymes about Nooks and digital books, MP3s and LCD Wi-Fi HDTV, but Apple's presence is strong throughout the story. It's a reminder that, while many young kids may not remember Jobs as they get older, his genius will continue to impact their daily lives for years to come. My own eight-year-old son is a fan of Jobs' keynotes and regularly dispenses advice on how best to use the Apple products in our house based on "what Steve says." 

Goodnight iPad is a silly story for kids who appreciate technology, but it'll make a fun holiday gift for fans of Jobs of any age. The book will be released on October 27; you can pre-order it now on Amazon. 

TimeOut Chicago Kids

Press for Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd                        

Steve Jobs Tribute: ‘Goodnight IPad' Book

October 7, 2011

In the grand tradition of "Go The F**k To Sleep," comes a new parody for bedtime. And today, this one goes straight for the heartstrings.

We all remember being tucked into bed, listening to someone read “Goodnight Moon.” Now there's a twist, for a new generation, on Margaret Wise Brown's 1947 classic book. “Goodnight iPad” by “Ann Droyd” (get it?) reminds us how many beeping, flashing, whizzing gadgets our children part with when they (finally) go to sleep.

As we mourn Steve Jobs, the parody takes on a different tone. It goes to show how much everything he created changed our lives, including how we say goodnight. Below are a few pages from the new book that -- when taken out of context -- are a more-than-fitting tribute.

Huffington Post

The Word On The Street

By Jan Gardner

August 28, 2011

Entire villages of children have been raised on the 1947 classic “Goodnight Moon.’’ More than 5 million copies have been sold, but the bedtime story doesn’t always hasten sleep - which might be why Adam Mansbach’s parody book, “Go the F**k to Sleep’’ (Akashic), became such an overnight sensation this summer. Now Northampton resident David Milgrim - a parent as well as a children’s book author and illustrator - has produced a kinder, gentler takeoff called “Goodnight iPad: A Parody for the Next Generation’’ (Penguin).

Milgrim, writing under the pseudonym Ann Droyd (get it?), uses the names of digital gadgets as rhyming devices to tell the story of a fed-up old woman who is trying to sleep amid the “bings, bongs, and beeps of e-mails and tweets.’’ Spoiler alert: An old-fashioned book triumphs. Milgrim’s parody will be in bookstores and available as an e-book on Oct. 27.

The Boston Globe

10/17/2011

Goodnight Moon gets millennial in this plugged-in parody from the aptly named Ann Droyd, aka David Milgrim (Eddie Gets Ready for School). The action happens not “in the great green room,” with its quaint fireplace, but “in the bright buzzing room,” with a TV’s fake hearth. Rather than a rotary telephone and a red balloon, “There was an iPad/ And a kid playing Doom/ And a screensaver of—/ A bird launching over the moon.” (Naturally, the bird is an Angry one.) Playful cartoons picture a family of antic bunnies, each texting or tweeting, “And a fed-up old woman/ Who was trying to sleep.” The grumpy granny begins tossing digital distractions out the window, as her desperate family members—of all ages—cling to her housecoat and beg her to relent: “Goodnight LOLs/ Goodnight MP3s/ Goodnight LCD Wi-FI HDTV.” Outside, electronic gear lies heaped outside other windows, too, screens aglow. Milgrim mimes the original with perfect pitch, capturing us at our most technology- dependent (there’s even “a viral clip of a cat doing flips”). Parents who bought Go the F*ck to Sleep might invest in this for future reference. All ages. (Nov.)

Publisher’s Weekly review

Wall Street Journal 11/1/11

Washington Post 10/26/11

Fox Spokane, WA 11/25/11
Fox Seattle, WA 11/25/11

Huffington Post 2nd article 10/23/11

The Daily 10/23/11

Virgin 10/16/11

Kirkus 10/19/11

KWCH Eyewitness News, Wichira, KN 10-26-11

MarketWatch WSJ 10-27-11

The Guardian

Examiner.com

Blogs:

The Pioneer Woman 1/17/12

Brain Pickings 11/14/12

Where the Best Books Are 11/1/11

Geek Mom 10/7/11

Babble 10/9/11

Circle of Blogs 10/10/11

Baby Center 10/10/11

Eli to the nth 10/13/11

Cool Cheap Gadgets 10/16/11

Yummy Mummy Club 10/20/11

Padvance 10-28-11

Weighty Matters 10-28-11

Blogs.com 10-28-11

TIP Today’s iPhone 10/29/11

Links to selected other articles and reviews

Best noon thing

By Tricia McKinney  -  Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:00 PM EDT

Margaret Wise Brown's classic bedtime book "Goodnight Moon" is soothing and surprisingly effective at getting both parent and child into that calm, sleepy place before lights out. Now there's a parody called "Goodnight, iPad," which pokes fun at the modern reality that parents have to choose to contend with.

Rachel Maddow blog

Amy Graff 11/2/11

Modern life is abuzz. There are huge LCD WiFi HD TVs and Facebook requests and thumbs tapping texts and new viral clips of cats doing flips. Wouldn't it be nice to say goodnight to all that?

In Margaret Wise Brown’s beloved Good Night Moon the bunny falls asleep to the sound of a little old woman whispering hush and the soft glow of the moon. That was the 20th century.

Here we are in the 21st century and in a new book titled Goodnight iPad that same bunny struggles to sleep in a bright, buzzing room where a little old lady’s whispers would never be heard and the light of the moon is drowned out by the glow of iPads, Nooks, laptops, BlackBerrys, a viral clip of a cat doing flips, and a screen saver of an Angry Bird launching over a moon.

This new book by “Ann Droyd,” a clever pseudonym for award-winning children’s book author and illustrator David Milgrim, is a hilarious parody poking fun at our modern plugged-in lives and our obsessive compulsive relationship with electronic devices.

Goonight iPad hit online stores last week at a time when we’re in the midst of a debate over whether young kids should be watching television and playing on iPhones. The American Academy of Pediatrics just came out with a recommendation telling parents to keep kids under age 2 away from screens, and the New York Times recently ran a story about parents’ growing interest in computer-free schools.

The author insists Goodnight iPad isn’t anti-technology. “I love my iPhone and my electronic drums and other music gear, and I love having so much recorded music available so easily,” Milgrim shares. “And streaming Netflix. All of it. It’s great.”

Rather Milgrim says his book is a reminder to families to sometimes turn off their tech toys and find the simple, peaceful, quiet world presented in Brown’s 1947 poem.  “I fear that some of the simple and quieter things may get lost, in the same way the night sky gets lost to the lights,” Milgrim says. “Those simple activities like being with friends, reading aloud, and especially time spent outside in nature are critical to building a full life and establishing a sense of balance. The quiet beauty portrayed so poetically in Goodnight Moon is a perfect example. The modern world is just way too intense, even for the most sophisticated amongst us.”

In Goodnight iPad, it’s the old granny rabbit who helps the family find peace and quiet.  When she’s woken by a chorus of rings, beeps, “you’ve got mails” and Eminem singing, she finds the little bunny playing “Doom” and the rest of the family glued to a huge LCD Wi-Fi HDTV with Bose 5.1, six remotes, and 3-D. She’s fed up with technology, yanks away everyone’s gadgets, and tosses the phones, remotes, the Macbook Air—all of it—out the window and onto the sidewalk.

Goodnight remotes

And Netflix streams,

Androids, apps,

And glowing screens.

Goodnight plugs

And power lights

That guide us to pee

In the darkness of night…

Goodnight gadgets everywhere.

San Francisco Chronicle

December 18, 2011, 7:51 PM

A New Children’s Book Parodies a Beloved Classic

By JULIE BOSMAN

Was 2011 the year of the irreverent picture book?

In the spring, there was “Go the — to Sleep,” the foulmouthed book that spoke to weary parents everywhere and became an instant best seller. (A G-rated version, “Seriously, Just Go to Sleep,” is scheduled for release next year.)

And now there is another sleeper hit, “Goodnight iPad,” a parody by David Milgrim , the children’s book author and illustrator responsible for “Time to Get Up, Time to Go” and “Another Day in the Milky Way.”

Mr. Milgrim first dreamed up the book with his agent, Brenda Bowen, who was “inspired by all the glowing power lights that shine in our modern homes after the overheads go out,” Mr. Milgrim, who wrote the book under a pseudonym, Ann Droyd, said in an e-mail.

“The thing that really inspired me about the idea was my fascination with how much things have changed since the world depicted in ‘Goodnight Moon,’ ” Mr. Milgrim said. “Our homes are really nothing like that anymore. The contrast between that quiet book and our noisy, buzzing lives seemed ripe for exploration and humor.”

“Goodnight iPad” leads the reader through a home whose inhabitants are plugged in in every way imaginable, typing on laptops with glowing screens, listening to music, playing video games and watching television. Then the mother figure in the house orders all of the devices shut down, wishing goodnight to “Nooks and digital books,” Eminem and Facebook friends, LOLs and MP3s, and “LCD Wi-Fi HDTV.”

There are now more than 120,000 copies of the book in print, said David Rosenthal, the president and publisher of Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, which released it in October.

Mr. Milgrim said he was interested in the question of whether high-tech gadgets were “raising us up or ruining our lives.”

“I can’t help but wonder if we are falling deeper into isolation in our own private cyber worlds,” he said in an e-mail. “But on the other hand, I hesitate to judge the things we are drawn to. If we want to power up, maybe that’s all we need to know. Who is to say?”

NY Times

By Jonathan Liu   2/1/12

Next up is Goodnight iPad, by the pseudonymous Ann Droyd. It’s a parody of the classic Goodnight Moon, of course. But in this room instead of a telephone and a red balloon, there’s “an iPad and a kid playing Doom.” There are ebooks and Angry Birds and 3D HDTVs and YouTube clips … “and a fed-up old woman who was trying to sleep.”

So then she gets up and starts collecting all the gizmos and gadgets. Goodnight iPad. Goodnight Doom. All of the things go out the window as everyone — both kids and parents — look on in horror. But then she gets all the lights turned out and all the bunnies tucked into their beds, and they all go to sleep … except for one little bunny who gets out his flashlight to read a (paper) copy of his own classic bedtime story.

Goodnight iPad probably won’t suddenly make your kids give up their Nintendo DS (or you give up your smartphone), but it’s a funny reminder that maybe sometimes we spend a little too much time in front of screens. I do think it would have been fun to see the artwork done in Clement Hurd’s style, but at least the text is done in the same vein as Margaret Wise Brown’s poem, with the same rhythm and pacing. Goodnight iPad was released in October and is available in bookstores and on Amazon.

GeekDad / Wired

‘Goodnight iPad’ — A Bedtime Story for Adults

Published: Monday, 6 Feb 2012 | 1:34 PM ET

By: Jane Wells  CNBC Correspondent

Have trouble sleeping?

Maybe it's your iPad

We are so connected during the day it becomes difficult to disconnect at night. There's always one more Tweet to send, one final peak at Facebook, three more emails to write, one last check of TMZ.

Stop.

Here's how.

A book called "Goodnight iPad" has been written by someone using the clever nom de plume Ann Droyd.

The book parodies one of my favorite children's books, "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown (my son always laughed at the line, "Goodnight nobody").

In Droyd's new take on the story, you don't say goodnight to the cow jumping over the moon, but to the Angry Bird jumping over it.

You also say goodnight to your digital devices, Eminem on your mp3 player, and your humungous TV "with BOSE 5.1, six remotes, and 3D." Note which movie is playing on TV in the Youtube version of the book (for those of you under the age of 40, Google “Stanley Kubrick”).

Part of the writing evokes Dr. Seuss — "the bings bongs and beeps of emails and tweets." What would he have said about the world today? All the Whos down in Whoville wouldn’t even notice the Grinch stole Christmas now unless he put it online.

The book ends with a grandmother reading a real book, not a Nook, to a child. It's "Goodnight Moon", illuminated by flashlight. The image alone is calming. Goodnight nobody, indeed. This funny book has a serious message.

I think I’ll tweet about it.

Maybe later.

CNBC